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Hatzalah doesn’t hire members. They’re unpaid volunteers. Hatzalah is permitted to discriminate in whom they choose as non-paid volunteers.
They also discriminate on the basis of religion.
“20 million dollars for a phone upgrade?
Sounds shady to be honest.
Sounds alot like when a township pays a half million to put up a new light at an intersection.
Im sure if hatzoloh had an open bit for a new phone system upgrade it would be less then half that figure.”Communications refer to a digital radio system, it is actually way more than that and is a complicated system.
DY,
While I may be wrong, I believe that the bills these posters were referring to are the ones that the insurance company paid, probably an EOB document.
to YYser: Was it a bill from Hatzoloh that you then sent to your insurance company or was it an Explanation of Benefits that your insurance company sends you every month to show you whom they paid?
As an aside, if you call 911 and a city ambulance takes you to the hospital, 911 bills your insurance company. It is NOT a free ride. So many people think a 911 ambulance is ‘free’ and are shocked when they see their Explanation of Benifits that shows that the insurance company paid them and/or when they receive a bill from the city for the co-copay. As I have already stated, I and my family members have never received a bill from Hatzoloh for the co-pay.
There appears to be alot of misunderstandings, and misinformation regarding billing and copays.
COPAYS- copays are not paid to the insurance company. When a provider submits a claim, the ins and the patient share a “coresponsibility” for payment to the provider. The insurer provides the bulk , while the patient owes the copay. All copays, including Medicare must be billed and can, under certain circumstances , be written off, including Medicare. This is typically done if a financial review indicates the patient cannot afford to pay and qualifies for a reduced payment. Providers have maintain a charity care policy and inform the patient of its existence.
Billing insurance companies for routine care is not that difficult , but billing for ambulances is whole different world and presents numerous challenges. The patient is often in no condition to provide demographic and ins info. In addition, Federal law (EMTALA) prohibits the gathering of information until the patient has been triaged and stabilized , by which time the ambulance is possibly gone . NYC hospitals receive monthly lists from the FDNY requesting ins and demographics for patients transported there. How would Hatzolla do it?
Billing would require the purchase of electronic systems for registration, billing , and tracking income, receivables and cash. It would also have to hire fulltime staff to gather information, verify it, post it and follow up on the billing . Even if the billing and collection were farmed out to a service, they would have to be paid. Staff would also be needed to review applications for charity care.
What I’m saying is that billing requires capital investment and hiring of salaried staff membersThere are multiple billing agencies that specialize in ambulance billing, they probably charge a percentage of what is billed or a flat fee per claim.
They have a team that requests the billing information from the hospital and have the necessary software required.
While I have no clue if Hatzoloh would hire such a service, almost every ambulance agency does, I believe Hatzolah would do so as well.
With regards to EMTALA, that is not the case, the law states that care cannot be delayed by asking for insurance and billing information, this is to assess and stabilize a patient.
Yet most patients that arrive at the hospital are stable and do not require immediate treatment. These patients are registered prior to being treated.
Regardless, the billing agency is tasked with getting the patients billing information.
I will once again stress, I am sure there are reasons against billing, however, misinformation should not be thrown around.
One week into this, has it had any impact?
No, b”H, so far nobody’s been arrested for fraud. Be”H it should stay that way.
2scents, you make it sound so simple. My hospital alone would receive up to 800 requests a month from the FDNYalone, looking for insurance info. We complied only because of an agreement negotiated by the Greater NY Hosp Assoc. We ignored requests from other ambulance companies ( private or volunteer).
If , as according to you most arrivals didn’t need, immediate treatment, they didn’t need an ambulance.Not sure why you use immediate treatment with ambulance necessity. There are many patients that are transported by ambulance as a standard of care yet do not need immediate assessment.
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